Part of key topic Meditation Practices
6. “I’m super perplexed and baffled with defining or understanding the term suchness or thusness. Are you able to communicate what it actually means?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Suchness ] // [Ajahn Sumedho] [Language] [Knowing itself] [Aggregates] [Unconditioned] [Dhamma] [Recollection/Dhamma]
Quotes: “It’s like this.” “Reality is unimaginable.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Direct experience]
Sutta: MN 72.20, quoted in The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 172.
3. “When the mind rests in awareness and it’s not going out, it feels very natural. It knows that this is the place to be, but still over and over again, no matter how clearly it sees this pure quality and peaceful quality, it still goes out to thoughts. The mind keeps going out. It keeps grabbing, it keeps identifying, even though it knows this is dukkha.” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Knowing itself] [Clinging] [Suffering] [Long-term practice] // [Noting] [Mindfulness of mind] [Idealism] [Discernment] [Food] [Feeling] [Birth]
Quote: “It’s just that much.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah]
6. “The space where everything arises and ceases, where it is not arising and ceasing—it is just knowing. That is how I experience the still point. … When I turn the mind towards that, I sometimes feel like something is wrong because there is a sense of trying to keep it there. There is a sense of wanting to fixate on it. … So I wonder whether Ajahn or Luang Por have any helpful way of how we should hold turning towards it in a way that is the middle way.” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Spaciousness] [Knowing itself] [Clinging] [Middle Path] // [Non-identification] [Similes] [Becoming]
Reference: Silence by John Cage. [Artistic expression]
2. “Could you clarify what you said about the mind and objects of awareness and how freedom from attachments is possible?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Nature of mind] [Knowing itself] [Liberation] // [Non-identification] [Insight meditation] [Ajahn Mun]
Simile: Oil and water. — Ajahn Chah. [Similes] [Ajahn Chah]
Follow-up: “I like flowers, but I need to stop buying flowers. How can this help?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Clinging] [Feeling] [Volitional formations]
4. Question about associating with and clinging to wholesome and conducive environments. Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Skillful qualities] [Clinging] [Spiritual friendship] // [Suffering] [Knowing itself] [Discernment] [Amaravati] [Ajahn Chah]
Quote: “If you seek for security in what is insecure, you are bound to suffer.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Impermanence]
Quote: “Wanting what’s good without stop. That’s a disease of the mind.” — Ajahn Mun, Ballad of Liberation from the Khandhas. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Mun] [Craving]
Quote: “Live simply; be natural.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Simplicity]
Story: A sincere practitioner’s family complains about his way of being mindful. Told by Ajahn Amaro. [Mindfulness] [Everyday life] [Pace of life]
6. “If worldly experiences are based on previous conditions, how is it possible to reach the world beyond our experience?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Conditionality] [Liberation ] // [Insight meditation] [Cessation] [Knowing itself]
Sutta: DN 11.85: “Where long and short, coarse and fine, pure and impure find no footing …”
Sutta: SN 2.26: The end of the world.
1. Comment: The separation between the mind and the sense/mind objects can be helpfully contemplated at multiple levels of acuity. Contributed by Ajahn Kaccāna. [Nature of mind] [Knowing itself] [Sense bases] // [Nibbāna] [Ajahn Chah]
Sutta: AN 11.9.
Reference: Stillness Flowing by Ajahn Jayasaro, pp. 90-91.
Response by Ajahn Amaro. [Hearing the true Dhamma] [Perception] [Etymology]
Quote: “The Five Khandhas exist, but they aren’t real. The Dhamma is real, but it doesn’t exist.” — Ajahn Paññāvaḍḍho. [Ajahn Paññāvaḍḍho] [Aggregates] [Dhamma]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
Quote: “Bright, loud, and mobile is the false; subtle and indistinct is the true.” — Master Hsuan Hua to Ajahn Amaro in a dream. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Master Hsuan Hua] [Ajahn Amaro] [Dreams] [Truth]
3. “Is there a difference between citta and poo roo?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro. [Heart/mind ] [Knowing itself] [Nature of mind] // [Thai] [Language] [Proliferation] [Dhamma] [Buddha] [Ajahn Amaro] [Dhamma books]
Quote: “If there’s anything left, just throw it to the dogs.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Chah] [Relinquishment]
6. “Can you explain what Ajahn Mahā Boowa means by ‘the essence of a level of being’ in Straight from the Heart by Ajahn Mahā Boowa, p. 228, quoted in The Island by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, p. 158?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Becoming] // [Clinging] [Birth] [Fetters] [Restlessness and worry] [Conceit] [Knowing itself]
10. “In the Bāhiya Sutta (Ud 1.10), is the concept of bare attention before mental fabrications and include feeling?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Knowing itself] [Volitional formations] [Feeling] // [Sense bases]
Sutta: SN 10.3: Sūciloma.
5. Comment: [This discussion of ‘Nibbāna is the cessation of becoming’ (AN 10.7)] reminds me of the last testament of a well-known teacher: ‘Rest in purity and evenness and do something for the benefit of others.’ Read by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nibbāna] [Equanimity] [Compassion]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Simplicity]
Reading: “The Safest Way to Dwell,” Gifts He Left Behind by Ajahn Dune, p. 102. [Ajahn Dune]
Quote: “As for me, I dwell with knowing. … Knowing is the normality of mind that’s empty, bright, pure, that has stopped fabricating, stopped searching, stopped all mental motions—having nothing, not attached to anything at all.” [Knowing itself] [Cessation]
6. “In animitta samādhi, is the mind one-pointed or just sharp? Does it fall into the world of jhāna?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Concentration] [Nimitta] [Unification] [Jhāna]
Sutta: SN 48.9.4: Unification of mind with relinquishment as its object. [Relinquishment]
Quote: “The point that includes.” — Ajahn Sumedho. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Spaciousness]
Teaching from Ajahn Chah: “Being Dhamma.” Related by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Knowing itself] [Not-self] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 95.20: The sequence of hearing, understanding, practicing, and realizing Dhamma.
Reference: Being Dharma by Ajahn Chah (commercial).
5. Explanation of the five higher fetters (SN 45.180). Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno. [Fetters ] // [Craving for material existence] [Jhāna] [Craving for immaterial existence] [Formless attainments] [Conceit] [Self-identity view] [Knowing itself] [Restlessness and worry] [Ignorance]
7. “Were there any particular themes in Ajahn Chah’s teachings that regularly came up?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah ] // [Virtue] [Right View] [Relinquishment] [Knowing itself]
9. “If nothing is permanent, does that apply to the mind?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Nature of mind] [Impermanence] // [Knowing itself] [Liberation]
Sutta: SN 12.61: You’d be better off taking the body as self.
2. “Could you offer some reflections on experiencing mind as mind in the Noble Eightfold Path?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Eightfold Path] [Chanting] [Chithurst] [Amaravati] [Mindfulness of mind ] // [Noting] [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro] [Nature of mind] [Knowing itself]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 97.
Sutta: MN 10.34: Mindfulness of mind.
Follow-up: “Does this relate to Luang Por Dune’s reformulation of the Four Noble Truths where it says, ‘The mind seeing the mind?’” [Ajahn Dune] [Four Noble Truths] [Mindfulness of mind ]
Reference: Gifts He Left Behind by Ajahn Dune, p. 3.
Quote: “An inward-staying unentangled knowing.” — Upāsikā Kee Nanayon. [Upāsikā Kee Nanayon] [Knowing itself]
5. Reflection by Ajahn Pesalo: The balance between community and self-reliance. [Saṅgha] [Self-reliance ] [Abhayagiri] // [Faith] [Ajahn Chah] [Trust ] [Monastic life] [Present moment awareness]
Quote: “One’s attitude towards practice should be: ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’” — Ajahn Mahā Boowa. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Meditation]
Quote: “You are the awareness. All of us are the awareness.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Knowing itself]
Quote: “Give it 40 years.” — Ajahn Sucitto. [Ajahn Sucitto] [Determination] [Patience]
5. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: The Buddha points to the simplicity of mind where there is the possibility of freedom. [Heart/mind] [Liberation] // [Relinquishment] [Knowing itself]
Follow-up: “So we are consciousness as opposed to having consciousness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Consciousness] [Ajahn Sumedho] [Self-identity view] [Knowledge and vision]
16. “When you’re not dealing with suffering, where do you reside in your practice or what do you focus on?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Knowing itself] [Beauty]